Charlotte Information Request

[ChristianDean]

Hello, I am looking to find out some more information about Charlotte from people who have been or live there as I am considering a relocation to Charlotte from Columbus, Oh. I just had a few questions.

1. What is the weather like in Charlotte. Are there long cold winters? Does it snow? I am really looking to move somewhere a little bit warmer than where I live right now.

2. The terrain, where I live right now is very flat, and I HATE it. I would like to live somewhere with a little mroe variety, while I know there arent mountians IN Charlotte, what is the terrain like there? Is it hilly or flat or varied etc. I dont like to see the skyline from the suburbs.

3. What kind of recreation is there in Charlotte? I like amusement parks, day trips, I love the water and the beach so Lakes, closest and nicest beaches, ski resorts/ lodges, anything you can put in there thats personal. Also I love to make shopping a recreation, is there alot of unique shopping villages, areas of town or even unique or upscale malls.

4. I like nightlife, I like to stay out late and have things to do. Are there areas of town where you can walk at night with shops open late, with clubs/restaurants etc. I am Gay as well, is the city as a whole gay friendly, I have heard mixed things about the region, but have very little experience with it (obviously). Even during the day are their urban areas/urban parks, where you can make a day of maybe eating out and going for a walk.

5. I see alot of proposals for Charlotte construction, I am curious as to what the residents think about these, as far as if they will get built and how that has worked out in the past.

6. Also I forgot, haha, I am young and not very wealthy as much of us young people are. What are the areas that are inexpensive and maybe bohemian or trendy. Or any other affordable 'close in' neighborhoods.

Well, thats about it, I know very little about the city, I have just seen it in the news alot recently and have become very interested in being involved with such a seemingly exciting city. Please add your own personal likes for Charlotte to your responses, I am very interested in hearing them. Is there any forum dedicated to just Charlotte? This is pretty much the most in-depth forum on Charlotte I could find.

THANKS!

[bret15]

Well, I dont live in Charlotte, but i do my Geography. Charlotte commonly has warm temps durring the summer, and occasionaly warm times in the winter. The terrain is differnt, because your near the appalaicains. ask other people about 3 and 4, but number 5, lots of new construction is going on in Charlotte, just look at the other threads in this section.

[atlrvr]

I'll do this question justice later today when I have a decent amount of time to share my opinion, but overall I think Charlotte is one of the most dynamic places in the country to be living right now......granted it doesn't have the "big city" feel just yet, but the people who live here for the most part are excited about the change and have a great "skys the limit attitude".......more to come....

[Miesian Corners]

Christian, come on down! Charlotte is a nice place to live, although not for everyone. Geographically, it's a perfect place to be: hour and a half to the mountains and skiing/hiking and three hours to Charleston and the beaches.

Paramount Parks has its headquarters here, so Paramount's Carowinds is a fairly well-run park. However, it is not Cedar Point.

Our topography is gently rolling Piedmont.

SouthPark is the premier shopping center between Atlanta and Washington. Anchors are Nordstrom, Belk, Dillard's, Hecht's (soon to be Macy's) and Nieman-Marcus is under construction. Some of the stores that have their only Carolina locations include Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Lacoste, Sur La Table, Kate Spade, and Tiffany.

Gay life is average, I guess. I know there are a good many bars and I know a good many gay and lesbian folks. All are out and accepted by co-workers and neighbors. That's not to say this is the most gay friendly city, it's not. Our city government doesn't offer domestic partnership benefits and our mayor refused to welcome (via a letter) 1,400 people who showed up here for the Human Rights Campaign dinner at the Convention Center. Political grandstanding on his part, I think. He's a country club Republican who doesn't really care, but doesn't want to upset the religous right.

I guess the only bohemian places are Plaza-Midwood and North Davidson. You can buy a pretty nice condo in North Davidson in the $90s. You can rent in Elizabeth and Plaza-Midwood from the $400 a month range (in an older building).

At any rate, I love it here. It's a beautiful city with lots of exciting things happening. And yes, I think most all of the projects announced will get built.

[Mobuchu]

I can give a quick answer to #4. Im not gay, so I dont really know any of the strickly gay bars, but I do know there are at least a couple.

Uptown is your best bet for night life. There are at least 15-20 clubs/bars all within walking distance from each other in uptown, most people dont realize how many there are. (And a very wide variety for whatever mood your in) With the new condo towers going up and Johson and Whales Univ. filling its roster in the next couple years, the "night life" is only going to get better.

Last call in Charlotte is 2am , (I miss 4am in NYC). But there are a couple places like "The Sunset Club" that stay open after those hours for late night hang outs.

As for shopping, you would probably like Birkdale Village in Huntersville or the Promenade (i think thats what its called) in Southpark. Both very nice "outdoor malls". Im not too big on the shopping thing so see what these other guys have to say, lol.

[Raintree21]

1. I'd say our average yearly temperature is probably 60. High in the 90's during June-August and average low in the 20's and 30's November-February. Usually 2-3 times a year we'll get a dusting with any decent accumulation about every 2-3 years. Big snowfall (for us) of about 10 inches or so about every 9-10 years.

2. We're in the Piedmont which is rolling hills. Depending on where you're at you can see downtown from miles away and in others you can't see a half a mile away. Drive ~20 miles west and you have Crowder's Mountain and 2-3 hours west are the Appalachain Mountains. 2-3 hours east is the beach.

3. Carolina Panthers (NFL Football), Charlotte Bobcats (NBA Basketball), Charlotte Knights (Minor League Baseball), Charlotte Checkers (Minor League Hockey), Charlotte Sting (WNBA Basketball), Lake Norman, Lake Wylie, Mountain Island Lake, Crowder's Mountain, Catawba River, snow skiing in the mountains, waterskiing on the lakes, beaches of North and South Carolina (Myrtle Beach just south of the NC/SC border is probably the most popular and commercialized) Paramount's Carowinds Theme Park, Lowes Motor Speedway (Auto Racing), a ton of malls: Carolina Place, South Park, Eastland, and Concord Mills to name a few,

4. The uptown night life is booming again. The busiest nights are Thursday through Saturday but there are still plenty of places to go on other nights, they just won't be real crowded.

Charlotte as a whole is very much in the Bible Belt but as more and more people move here from other areas, it is slowly changing.

5. The new buildings will definitely be built. Funding is in place and 1/2-3/4 of all proposed buildings have been rented/sold before ground has even been broken.

6. I'd say unless you've got roommates, uptown is gonna be fairly expensive ($190,000+ for 600sq.ft. lofts). If you're on a budget, you can live anywhere else and be pretty affordable and with the mass transit system in the works, you can be uptown in no time.

[Neo]

Charlotte has an annual snowfall of 6.9" but some years we don't get anything. Like this year, I think I saw half an inch of snow and about the same amount of ice (same storm) but that was it. The previous winter however, over a foot fell in one storm. You can count on about 3 months of fairly cold temperatures (30's and below) with the rest being moderate. Our summer time temps get up in the high 90's while our lowest winter temps will be closer to 0 (probably 3 or 4 days annually with this temperature). Average winter temp is 31 degrees and the average summer temp is 76 degrees.

Terrain is hilly. We have some flat spots but for the most part it is rolling hills. We sit in the area between the plains of NC and the mountains. Depending on where you are in the Charlotte area, you can get to the mountains in ~2.5 hours and the beach in ~3 hours (SC beaches). It's definately a mix of terrain here and for the most part, you can't see the skyline but from key locations. The skyline is hidden from most urban locations as well because of the terrain.

We have a top amusement park, Paramount's Carowinds, a couple of large lakes, Lake Norman to the north and Lake Wylie to the south. We have premium shopping destinations as well including Southpark Mall to the south (upscale including Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, etc.) and Concord Mills mall which is one of the largest tourist destination (maybe it is the largest tourist destination?) in the state. I'm an avid shopper and I assure you there is plenty to do in that regard.

Lots of nightlife for all types of people downtown. I'm not a big club person but we have a lot of active clubs, downtown is very active on the weekends and is getting better every day with all of the residential projects coming online. The city is gay friendly from what I know, I'm not gay but I haven't heard complaints from those who are. We may be in the bible belt but we're not near as uptight as some hold us out to be.

An eight acre park was just announced for downtown that will start construction in the coming months that will give downtown goers a nice park. We also have several nice parks outside of downtown that offer trails for bike riding, running, walking, etc.

You could take a day trip to Atlanta (well, if you really wanted to), the mountains, the beach, etc. You could go to places like Charleston in a day but you'd probably want a little longer there. I think it takes a little more than three hours to get to Charleston from Charlotte so it's not bad, about the same for Atlanta.

A lot of residential projects for us, especially downtown. We have a new light rail line that has started construction that is spurring a lot of development alongside. We've had several high-rise residential projects recently announced, some of which have already broke ground. We also have a children's learning center, arena, etc. finishing up construction downtown which will no doubt add to the nightlife.

There are affordable "close-in" neighborhoods. I live in a surrounding county and I am also young (23) and have been contemplating a move closer to downtown but I'm a little stuck for the moment because of another situation. Charlotte is extremely affordable, especially what you get for your money. Most everything here is new.

I really think you'd fit in with the city and wish you the best of luck. I lived in Chicago for a few months and I loved it, after having to move back to Charlotte I went for a while having withdrawals of Chicago but I've fell back in love with the city I grew up in. Charlotte is a great place with great opportunity and the city seems to be planning their future well as to not make the same mistakes other cities have made.

[monsoon]

In fact, Charlotte did not get any snow in 14 of the last 24 winters.

[ChristianDean]

Hey wow, I didnt expect so much, so quickly. Thank you very much for all of your replies, and keep them coming. I definately like seeing the different opinions and takes from people!

By the way as far as housing I probably will not buy (I am only 20) I am looking to rent a studio (or will go larger if that isnt available) and am looking for a 600-ish price range.

Id definatly like to find out more about the mass transit as well, is there a website for that? Otherwise how is getting around by car, are the roads pretty clear or is the traffic hectic?

Thanks again, you guys have been very hospitable haha.

[Norm2]

I can tell you I am gay, and as far as the gay night club seen, there is Velocity, a techno club that stays open until about 4am, there is Scorpio's, very mixed crowd and they have drag shows twice a week. there is Myxx, a hip hop club, Daks bar, Liason's bar, Chasers strip club, the eagle, and I few other places I cant remember right now. There is a new place called Illusions opening sometime within the next few months. Most of these clubs are in the surrounding neghborhoods around uptown. There really isnt a gay club in uptown right now.....hopefully that will change. There is White rabbit gay bookstore on central avenue and it is right next to our gay community center. If you want any more info just let me know!

[JunktionFET]

By the way as far as housing I probably will not buy (I am only 20) I am looking to rent a studio (or will go larger if that isnt available) and am looking for a 600-ish price range.

There are many such places in Uptown or South End in that price range, sometimes you can score a studio in the mid $500s around there. One bedroom places can be in the low 600s-700s. The suburbs are of course much cheaper.

Id definatly like to find out more about the mass transit as well, is there a website for that? Otherwise how is getting around by car, are the roads pretty clear or is the traffic hectic?

Charlotte has great bus system--very thorough and reasonably priced. There is also a rail trolley system that connects Uptown with South End.

Charlotte is in the process of constructing its city-wide rail based transit system. The first line (under construction right now) connects Uptown with the southern tip of the city (major suburbs down there).

http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/cats/h...detransit%2eorg

Traffic is pretty crappy, often times it takes a while to make any progress. If it isn't a traffic jam, it's all the stoplights. When I lived in Charlotte, I went apartment shopping one saturday and ended up spending almost all day in the car visiting just a handful of places. Other times however you can move around very quickly--depends on your luck.

[appatone]

I thought I would throw in a few things not mentioned by others.

Even the shopping outside of the malls is cool. Plaza-Midwood, as an example, has a lot of funky shops like Boris and Natasha, Lotus, City Supply Co., House of Africa, and a lot more. Neighborhoods like Dilworth offer up cool shops like The Paper SkyScraper. And of course no one can forget about the boost of retail space Elizabeth is about to get with Grubb's new development.

I also wanted to point out that gay clubs are not the only nightlife options available to a gay resident. Off Tryon Theatre Company focuses allot on producing theatre that many times centers on gay themes or storylines. There are also the speakers, gay film series, and the like all sponsored by the lesbian and gay community center. In addition to the "gay only" clubs there are a lot a lot of bars and coffee shops in town that are very welcoming and have a large following of both gay and straight customers.

As far as neighborhoods are concerned I would really suggest Plaza-Midwood, NODA, Elizabeth, or SouthEnd. Those are in no particular order as I think they are all great in their own way.

Also, I'm a bit of a road trip fanatic myself and Charlotte is surrounded on all sides by great towns for road trips. I can't even describe how great Charleston is for a road trip. For me (and I'm a fast driver) it's about 2.5 hours. Asheville (2 hours away) is amazing, bohemian, and surrounded by the tallest mountains in the eastern US. Wilmington is tremendous, laid back, and unpretentious although they have a lot to be proud about. It's a little farther then the others but still not bad. Myrtle Beach (about 3 hrs) is close if you're into the mega-tourist type of destination (Come on, who doesn't like a multi-colored, light-up, Egyptian Pyramid shaped Hard Rock Cafe every once in awhile;)). The laid-back college town attitude and funkiness of Boone is great for a getaway to the mountains (from uptown I can hit that one in about 1.5 hours). I haven